Nerdtour 2016: Arrival, Japan!

Well I’m here, after a long flight with very little sleep, it’s currently 10:45 PM on Monday night, 9:45 AM Monday morning to you all in Eastern Daylight Time, and I’m in Narita, Japan. Specifically, I’m in a hotel room just down the road (and a short train ride) from Narita Airport, taking advantage of their Internet to post this and a short video I made earlier. I was just conscious enough to get a JR East Rail Pass to use this trip, and I got a new Suica card to use on the train and the subway, and the vending machines, and a lot of other places!

The funniest and kind of neatest thing so far is, I was interviewed for a Japanese entertainment program called “Why Did You Come To Japan?”, which I’ve seen a few times on YouTube. They asked me a lot of questions, the main guy spoke only Japanese, very fast, but with the help of a translator I was able to hold my own, and came back with Japanese responses as well! I’m sure that editing will make it funny, which is okay, because being completely jet-lagged and exhausted I was pretty loopy!

On the train from the airport to Narita proper, I didn’t see anything blooming at all, so I don’t think there will be any cherry blossom pictures from here on this trip, unless they come out just before I leave. I’ll make a pass by the shrine complex at Naritasan, and at least get some pictures of the area.

I also posted this video just after I checked in, and despite what I said in the video, I did lay down and sleep for about 3 hours, which is why I’m able to type this blog post!